#PHILLIP ASHLEY RIX HOW TO#
#PHILLIP ASHLEY RIX PROFESSIONAL#

Rix consults with corporations to design a flavor exclusive to their brand. He’s interested in helping companies convey their personality and identity through his chocolates. This was a good way of getting it out to lots of people.” The corporate sales were really how I got a lot of product out there in a short time span, particularly before I had a store. It gets into someone’s hands, and I receive a call about my chocolates. “When a company is sending my chocolates to 300 people, I’m getting marketing to 300 people, and revenue. He’s going after the corporate gift-giving market, not only for the large accounts and longevity, but for its masterful marketing tool.

Recognition from some of the world’s most famous, and fickle customers, has been great for business, but Rix has his eyes on a more sustainable customer segment. He and his sweet stuff made their Hollywood debut at the Oscars. Rix tapped his strong personal network, built through years working at large organizations, to get his chocolates into the hands of influential people. In 2013, he opened pop-up stores, at banks, boutiques, corporate office buildings, and art galleries – another way to test the market. Rix used charity events as impromptu focus groups, taking advantage of impartial taste testers to gauge the popularity of a flavor. Understanding logistics, supply chain and having detailed experience in marketing and branding helped me develop my chocolate brand, as opposed to just becoming a chef for the love and the art.” I managed a sales team focused on small, medium and large businesses, but I also trained staff and helped open stores. “I was a business manager in corporate sales, marketing Apple’s products and services.

#PHILLIP ASHLEY RIX HOW TO#

I’ve probably made it over 30 times in my head before I ever make it.”īut even before Rix started teaching himself how to produce chocolate, he carefully plotted out his business plan, using everything he learned at Apple, and in other roles to hone his strategy. It was a good thing, because now, I strategize my next flavor. I had to conserve and be very diligent about what I was making. Before I got my own facility, I was working in a very small kitchen, so wastage wasn’t an option. I wanted to know the science, and know the rules, so I could break them – mixing blue cheese and chocolate, to create a piece of art that’s almost a miniature dish a flight of tastes in one thing, like fig jam and port,” says Rix. I didn’t want to replicate anything that was out there. “I wanted to manipulate chocolate and chemistry.

#PHILLIP ASHLEY RIX PROFESSIONAL#

They’re made by hand, and have been dreamt up, and produced by Rix, at his professional kitchen in Memphis, Tennessee. Each one has been lovingly named, starting with his signature, “Mama Jean,” a sweet potato-flavored dark chocolate ganache. Rix's chocolates were doled out at the Oscars, a box sits on Morgan Freeman’s nightstand, and they're consumed by some of America’s top CEOs. That's just a sampler of what Phillip Ashley Rix has concocted for his eponymous, artisan chocolate company. A self-taught Willy Wonka is winning high profile customers with his wild flavored chocolates, like sweet potato, French bleu cheese, and bacon caramel shortbread.

Phillip ashley rix